Sunday, June 21, 2015

On the Fact that Standard Oil's Market-Share Was Well on its Way Downward (Competition from the Likes of Burmah Oil, Union Oil, Pure Oil, Associated Oil and Gas, Gulf, Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell, etc.) Before the Roosevelt Anti-Trust Laws Even Went into Effect

This is vexing only to the statists, in that the rest of us who've actually looked at history know that monopolies are exceedingly rare (with new rivals constantly emerging) and that predatory pricing has never even ONCE taken place. As for why Standard Oil did so well for so long, that isn't exactly a mystery, either; the fact that Rockefeller was an efficient, low-cost competitor who consistently invested in cost-cutting technologies......................................................................................................Now, this isn't to say that there weren't Snidely Whiplash robber-barons back then. There were. But they weren't guys like Rockefeller who put forth goods and services that people wanted and needed, brought down the cost of living for everyone, and created tens of thousands of jobs, but rather guys like Edward Collins and the railroad bozos who bilked not just their customers but the taxpayers as well.